Saint Bede the Venerable

Life story

Bede was born around 673 in Northumbria, near the place where the monastery of Wearmouth was later founded. At the age of seven his family entrusted him to the abbot Benedict Biscop to be raised, and he later moved to the monastery of Jarrow under Ceolfrith. From then on he scarcely left that region. He was ordained a deacon at nineteen and a priest at thirty, and spent the rest of his life praying, teaching and writing in the monastery's rich library.

His output was wide. He wrote many commentaries on Scripture, homilies, lives of saints, and treatises on grammar, poetry, the calendar and the reckoning of time. His De temporum ratione, completed in 725, helped to popularise dating years from the birth of Christ in the West. His best-known work is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished around 731, which records the beginnings of Christianity in Britain from Roman times to his own day; it remains the leading source for that period and has earned him the title of father of English history.

A letter from his pupil Cuthbert describes his last days in late May 735, when he went on dictating to his scribe and died at Jarrow. His remains were later moved to Durham, where they are still venerated in the cathedral. The title Venerable has been used of him since the eighth or ninth century. Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1899, and he is the only Englishman to bear that title.

Works and witness

• Benedictine monk of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in northern England
• Wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished around 731
• Composed De temporum ratione in 725, helping spread the numbering of years from Christ's birth
• Wrote many Scripture commentaries and saints' lives
• Declared Doctor of the Church in 1899, the only Englishman with that title

Saints from the same country

Saint Thomas Becket, Saint Thomas More, Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Boniface

References

• Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
• Cuthbert, Epistola de obitu Bedae
• Martyrologium Romanum

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.